Taking Shelter (again) Of Krsna

ALACHUA FLA, USA — In the beginning when we first came to Krsna consciousness 43 years ago, there was a clear-cut distinction between what was material life, or maya, illusion, and what wasn't. Maya was seen as everything in our lives up to that point-- our many sinful habits, our ignorance and bodily consciousness, our unending longings for a variety of sense enjoyment, and of course our determined forgetfulness of God. What wasn't maya was the temple, devotional service, Sankirtan, prasadam, hearing and chanting, reading the Bhagavad-gita and describing the glories of Krsna, and associating with our beloved godbrothers, and of course following in the footsteps and instructions of a genuine pure devotee. This distinction seemed then like black and white. But as the years passed, these obvious distinctions faded into subtleties that were much more difficult to discern. As the more obvious influence of passion and ignorance slowly diminished because of the strength of our devotional service, the tricks of maya became more subtle. The distress of our long ignorant life of passion and longings had caused great pain and had been more than enough reason to surrender to our new life of devotional service. That was also true of the indolence and lethargy of ignorance. The miseries produced by the influence of these two modes were certainly a clear-cut impetus for taking shelter of Krsna in our new regulated devotional life, and for our seeking protection from the many miserable reactions to our sinful lives. But the further we progressed in devotional service, the more subtle became the illusory allurements. When we first joined Srila Prabhupada in 1969, it was very easy to engage in Krsna consciousness. All you had to do was be at the temple. 24 hours a day there were devotional activities going on and all you needed to do was join in. We understood from Srila Prabhupada that Krsna consciousness was just like a light. When we engaged in hearing or chanting, the light of Krsna consciousness was on, like when we come into a room and flick on the switch and all of the darkness is immediately driven out of the room. But when we stopped chanting or hearing then immediately maya would rush in, filling the void just as darkness rushes in, filling the room when the light switch is again turned off.                              So we were always trying to fill up our whole day with regulative devotional service, while all the time chanting continuously. All the devotees carried schedules outlining every minute of their days and were constantly trying to find the time to fit in another half hour of reading, etc. We were convinced that a devotee, even a neophyte, could be engaged 24 hours a day in transcendental activities through this practice of regulated devotional practice. This was shown by Srila Prabhupada when he organized the temples in America and implemented the regulative devotional principles to be followed by his disciples within the temples. We rose at 4 AM. and immediately after offering obeisances to Lord Krsna and Srila Prabhupada, we would clean our body (a regulative principle) because we were going to visit the Deities. Therefore, our showering was for the purpose of pleasing Krsna and during our bath we would chant the Holy Name. After bathing, we would apply tilak all over our body, and while doing so would chant the different names of Krsna. Then we would dress ourselves nicely in clean devotional dress, wanting to satisfy the Deities by appearing before Them with very clean clothing. This devotional attitude and following of different regulative principles helped the neophyte devotee to continually keep his mind on Krsna. Next, we would travel to the temple for the purpose of worshipping the Lord and, upon arriving, would offer our humble obeisances to our blessed guru, to Krsna, and to all of the assembled Vaisnavas there. When the curtains would open, we would bow down and recite various prayers to please Krsna and to beg His mercy. During aroti, we would look at the Deity and dance for Him and watch the different things being offered to the Lord by the pujari. All these activities fixed our mind on Krsna for the whole duration of the aroti, and after aroti there were more devotional prayers and there was Tulasi worship. This was all performed under the direction of the devotional regulative principles, and all these activities were purifying for the bhakta. Between these different activities there would sometimes be a slight pause, and we would chant the Holy Name constantly to keep our mind fixed on Krsna. After Tulasi puja, there were more prayers and worship, followed by two hours of japa, or the chanting of the Holy Name. During this time, there was no socializing with others and the devotee attentively concentrated his mind on hearing and training the mind to stay fixed on the transcendental sound vibration. And this was just the beginning of the day. It hadn't even become daylight yet. The whole day was like that---every minute filled with devotional activities with no time for maya. All the devotees had a single purpose. Everyone just wanted to help Srila Prabhupada push on this movement. But nowadays it is not so easy as "back in the day." Without so many organized activities during the day( except in the morning and evening) at the temple to inspire  us to engage in devotional service, our idle minds become fertile ground for frivolity, or worse. Surrounded in our daily lives by many subtle forms of maya we again can fall prey to material consciousness. In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna explains to us that because we are too much attracted to sense gratification and material opulence, we are becoming bewildered and are not resolving with determination to surrender to Krsna in full devotional service. If we allow ourselves to gradually fall asleep again and forget about this proposal of surrendering to Krsna, the Supreme Personality, by complete surrender, humility, and submissiveness to the bona fide pure devotee, and remain hovering on the mental platform, then we will again be subjected to birth, death, disease, and the awful miseries of growing old. If we foolishly abandon the shelter of Srila Prabhupada and again rely on our own abilities of speculative analysis for gaining "knowledge", and the false renunciations of impersonalism, or seek shelter of non-devotional processes of counseling, relationship training, new agey philosophy and seminars, etc., then we are going to gradually disqualify ourselves from achieving our goal of love of God. Affectionately,                                                                      Mahananda das